Xavier Bonilla

By LatAm ARTE

Xavier Bonilla, known as "Bonil" is an Ecuadorian press cartoonist who was born in 1964. He studied sociology before turning to editorial cartooning. Since 1985, he has drawn in numerous national newspapers. He currently works for the main Ecuadorian newspaper, “El Universo” and various magazines such as “Nuestro Mundo”, “Rocinante” and “Gestion”. He received numerous awards and exhibited around the world, but his cartoons, which denounce the corruption and incompetence of the Ecuadorian government, aroused the ire of Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, and led him to face several lawsuits. In February 2015, as he was leaving court at the end of another trial, fans and free speech activists greeted him with banners reading “I am Bonil”.